If you have an ash tree in your yard, take a picture of the tree with the kids and the dog. It may not be around forever.

Scientists fear that the emerald ash borer, which now looks like it's been in the Chicago area for three to five years, will wipe out ash trees in North America if it is not stopped.

The Asian borers already had been found on the North Shore, in Kane County and in downstate LaSalle County. Today, authorities announced that borers have been found in Du Page County, at North Avenue and Bloomingdale Road in Glendale Heights. And they are almost certainly not the last, according to John Biemer's Tribune story.

The bugs have been around here for a while, it turns out. The bug finders are just getting better at spotting them.

There is no need to panic. If your ash trees are infested, there is no sure way of stopping the insects from killing it; if they are not yet infested, there is no sure way to stop them from getting infested. There is some evidence that some insecticides may help somewhat if injected early and often, but it may be cheaper in the long run to cut down the tree and replace it with another species. Only ashes are known to be affected.

The borers are blamed for the deaths of 20 million trees in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Canada since they were discovered near Detroit in 2002 and have just been found in Pennsylvania. So far, no one has found a proven way to prevent the insects from laying eggs that turn into larvae that destroy the tissue that transports water and nutrients through ash trees.

Scientists are hoping to import a parasitic wasp from the borer's native China to attack it, or try to stop it with a fungus. But at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, community trees advocate Edith Makra, who is deeply involved with the local response to the emerald ash borer, is not counting on miracles to save the ash trees. She's starting to focus on what could be done with all that ash wood.

The Illinois Emerald Ash Borer Wood Utilization Committee has just gotten a $100,000 grant from the USDA to start studying how trees felled by the borer could be used as furniture, veneers, flooring or even biofuels, rather than having all of it ground up for mulch. (The village president of Wilmette, Chris Canning, is already having two infested trees from his yard milled into bats for Wilmette's youth baseball program.)

The utilization study will try to figure out how much ash might be available, what it might be used for, how it could be transported and milled without spreading the insects and how to solve many other logistical problems involved in logging trees from front yards and city parkways.

Makra warns that it is unlikely to turn into a financial windfall. The cost of milling urban wood will mean that it won't be worth cutting down back-yard trees for the money. "The decision would have to be made for environmental stewardship reasons, for personal reasons," she says. "When somebody has an attachment to their tree, if that tree has to come down, it lessens the pain if some part of that tree can be with you all the time."

She would like to see an infrastructure in place for using wood from all the trees that have to be cut down in the city and suburbs for varied reasons -- disease, insects, storms, construction, road widening. "Most of us in urban forestry have a forestry background and we really love wood," she said. They hate the idea of good trees that could be long, lovely boards being fed into chippers.

But that means convincing people to use reclaimed urban wood. "The dream is furniture," Makra says. The committee would like to have a furniture fair, where designers show off the beautiful things they have made of ash wood.

It's a lovely dream. But it also reflects a sad reality: The emerald ash borer is marching across America as relentlessly as the Dutch elm disease, and the most knowledgable people, the most tree-loving people, are preparing for the likelihood that they won't be able to stop it.

Comments

I've seen Emerald Ash Borers in my yard in Forest Park. My husband-who has a "problem" with bugs-grabbed one with a pair of plyers and popped it. Then the little bugger flew away!

Posted by: Monica | Jul 18, 2007 10:29:46 AM

Monica, please report your sighting immediately to the University of Illinois Extension at 708-481-0111. They pass on confirmed sightings to the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Chicago gardeners, it's very important to report all suspected sightings promptly so that scientists can figure out how far the infestation extends. Thanks!

Posted by: Beth Botts | Jul 18, 2007 2:20:15 PM

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